Human Palaeosystems Group (HPG)
The world is currently facing a dual crisis involving biodiversity and climate, posing the greatest challenge to the continuation of human life on Earth. Confronting this crisis demands public support, political will, and scientific solutions across social, technological, and predictive realms. Our team contributes to this critical theme by exploring deep-time human-environment relationships to derive lessons for the present. Specifically, we aim to unravel the dynamics of human bio-cultural evolution and ecosystem change, from the rise of our species to the dawn of agriculture, to understand the roots of the present geological epoch: The Anthropocene. To achieve this, our group features two key projects:
- The Pan-African Evolution Project
- The ERC-funded IslandLab Project
A collaborative approach
Although our team comprises a significant number of researchers, our work benefits from strong collaborations within the Max-Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. These collaborations involve robust connections with various independent groups and scholars from the Department of Archaeology, spanning diverse fields such as paleoecology, archaeobotany, and isotopes. This collaborative approach ensures that our work not only creates opportunities but also contributes broadly to the institute's overarching objectives.
We also have very strong links with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Department of Archaeogenetics, Department of Human Origins and independent groups), the Germany Geoscience Centre in Potsdam, and the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne, as well as other German institutions. Beyond Germany, strong links exist with the Evolutionary Ecology Group in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, the Department of Archaeology at Liverpool, UK, the University of Bordeaux in France, and the University of Malta. Beyond Europe, our team works closely with the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal, the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and Félix Houphouët-Boigny University in the Ivory Coast.
Through these collaborations, we ensure a multidisciplinary approach to our research, drawing on expertise from diverse fields such as genetics, archaeology, ecology, and climatology. This collaborative ethos enhances the robustness and breadth of our investigations, allowing us to tackle complex questions about human-environment interactions throughout history.